One of the many obstacles for educators when it comes to using technology in the classroom is training them on how exactly to do it. We know by now that simply handing out gadgets to teachers is not enough -- they need to know how to maximize the potential and what best to use the technologies for.
With that in mind, Teachers College of San Joaquin will issue iPads (the iPad 2, to be clear) to every teacher-in-training starting next month. And they say it’s the first college of its kind to do so.
Dean Catherine Kearney says it’s crucial to prepare budding educators to keep up with and engage their students.
“I’m old enough to remember when computers hit the classroom and unfortunately as a teacher during that era, we weren’t provided with very much training, and in some classrooms they became very expensive plant stands.”
Not so with the iPad. The idea is to use it in both college and in K-12 classrooms. For example, with the Notorize app, which is for note taking and recording audio, educators can have their students read out loud for fluency, listen to and comment on it in the classroom, then bring the recordings back to college to analyze it with their teacher peers.